


In Xanadu

by Alexandria (heartfullofelves)



Category: Marco Polo (TV)
Genre: Character Study, F/M, Gen, Historium Bingo, Season/Series 02, Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-10-03 20:37:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20459111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartfullofelves/pseuds/Alexandria
Summary: Shoreh is a free woman.





	In Xanadu

**Author's Note:**

> For the Historium Bingo square: Pleasure.
>
>> _In Xanadu did Kubla Khan_  
_A stately pleasure dome decree_
>> 
>> \- Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Shoreh knows she is a unique woman. Unencumbered by marriage or family obligations, she is free. That freedom has taken her all over the world, and now she is as far east as she has ever been. She has seen countless cities, but Xanadu is unlike any of them. Here, the people are uninhibited. They are free. They come here to lose themselves.

But not Shoreh. She has already known the freedom people seek in Xanadu.

She may not have family, but along the roads she has travelled she has made many friends and acquaintances from all different walks of life. She has witnessed the pressures from being born royal and the hardships of being born poor. While Shoreh was not blessed with everlasting wealth, she is able to pay her way with a song or a dance or a tale. Sometimes, when she is desperate, she pays with a fuck.

But most of the time she fucks for pleasure. The trouble is that she is too good at it; men get attached so easily she finds it better not to go back for more. The Latin pleasures her well enough for her to want it again and again, but he is in love with someone he cannot have, and soon he will become attached to someone he _can_ have. So, after having their fun together, they part.

Xanadu has treated Shoreh well, but she must move on. She wonders where to go next. The cold climate in the north would not suit her, but perhaps the south will do—she has heard fascinating tales from Java, for example.

Making the necessary arrangements takes time. The Great Khan’s war with Kaidu means that resources are scarce and few are willing to help a single foreign woman with no allegiances.

While she awaits safe passage, she performs several more times for the Khan’s court, receiving gifts in exchange. The rest of the time she keeps her head down. She may be free, but she also knows when to be demure.

When her passage is ready, she says a silent farewell to Xanadu. It will have a special place amongst all the other cities in her memory. Humming a Persian song to herself, she leaps up on the farmer’s cart and makes herself comfortable—this will be a long journey. It will be worth it, though, for all the pleasures to come.


End file.
